


Ouija Boards: The Window to the Soul

by Risingwood



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Demonic Possession, Gen, Ouija, Possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 04:13:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12573448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Risingwood/pseuds/Risingwood
Summary: There were a lot of things Ryou wanted to ask the spirit in his Ouija board.  All he really knew was his name, which happened to be the same as Ryou's surname; Bakura.The spirit's life had been stolen from him.  At such a young age, too.“You didn’t really get much of a chance at life, did you?"





	Ouija Boards: The Window to the Soul

October 31st was the one day a year that Ryou’s Ouija board could handle an uninterrupted session.Usually, the connection between him and the realm of the dead was stopped short whenever he used the board.Ryou never let it stop him from communicating with Bakura, a spirit he’d come to know, almost every night.They shared a name; Ryou’s last name happening to be the spirit’s name.Whether or not it was the spirit’s _real_ name was debatable, but Ryou didn’t mind either way.

Thinking about Bakura made Ryou smile, despite being out of breath from running home.As he hopped up the stairs of his apartment complex, he tried to think of the best things to ask the spirit.He unlocked his door and stepped inside.

“Sorry I’m late!” he called out, knowing Bakura was listening as he always was.“I lost track of time at school!”Ryou panted as he tried to catch his breath.After twisting the locks on his door, he checked his watch.6pm.It wasn’t that late, but Bakura was an impatient spirit.Hopefully he wouldn’t be too upset with Ryou for it.

“Let me put my books away, then I’ll be ready!”He jumped when he heard the telltale sound of a book falling off a shelf in the other room.Bakura didn’t communicate much, except for through the Ouija board, so it was certainly a surprise.And a pleasant one, at that.

Ryou carried his backpack through the tight hallway to his small living room.His apartment didn’t have a lot of furniture in general; it’d been bare when he’d arrived.He’d only taken what he considered essential when he’d moved, nor had be been able to buy much since he’d moved in.Ryou lived alone, and without a job since he was a student.

He carefully placed his bag on the floor, eyeing the room’s setup.Everything was carefully placed, as he’d made the correct preparations the night before.Across the room were two bookcases, placed on purpose to cover a window he despised.Not only was the frame ugly, but a window brought too much natural light into the room.The only light Ryou needed in this space was candlelight.On the shelves were books.Some were leather-bound.Others had no visible title and were small enough to fit in the palm of Ryou’s hand.Many were placed horizontally on top of others, threatening to fall at any moment.One book in particular stood out; it had bright red symbols scrawled over the black leather.It’d been sitting on his bookshelf for ages.The only reason Ryou had purchased it was because Bakura had told him to.Maybe someday he’d give it a read.

A book slid off a shelf, landing on the wood floor next to the one that’d fallen earlier.Ryou smiled softly.He’d let Bakura be impatient long enough.It was time to begin.

Ryou moved to the smaller of the room’s tables.It was low enough to the ground that he had to either sit on his knees or directly on the ground.There wasn’t even enough room for a cushion to sit on.

The Ouija board rested in front of him.It was yellowed around the edges, and some of the letters printed on it were fading just a bit.It wasn’t a new board by any means; it’d been a package deal with the antique table it was currently on.The previous owner claimed it was haunted with a vengeful spirit, as she’d put in her craigslist ad.And Ryou, the occult-lover he was, had raced over to grab it as soon as he’d discovered it.

Another book hit the floor.Ryou shook his head.Bakura’s impatience was endearing.“You were waiting that long, huh?”He picked up a deck of tarot cards sitting to the right of the Ouija board, and placed them a few feet away.The less distractions, the better.

On top of the board sat a wooden planchette for the purpose of conversing with Bakura.It was only way for Bakura to communicate directly, save for the whole book-falling thing.Ryou placed his fingers on the planchette.A loose chip of paint fell off.

He took a deep breath.There were a lot of things he wanted to ask Bakura that night.He’d had questions ever since he’d acquired the board.But Bakura was more private than Ryou was.Where Ryou would talk for hours to Bakura about his day, almost like a diary, Bakura rarely spoke about himself, mainly listening and providing support when needed. 

Ryou started the session in a typical manner.

“Hi Bakura.Sorry I’m late,” he spoke to the board.He wondered vaguely where Bakura was at the moment.He’d never shown himself.Although, Ryou wasn’t really sure what the rules for spirits were.Could they even show themselves?As far as he knew, object manipulation was the closest they could get to showing themselves.

The planchette began to move.It darted from one spot to the next, stopping on each capitalized letter long enough for Ryou to read it through the hole in the middle of the wood.After Bakura stopped moving it, it took Ryou a second to put the sentence together, and to respond.

“Aw, Bakura… I know you’ve been waiting.I’m sorry.”Ryou scratched the back of his neck, eyes downcast.He hated making Bakura upset.They’d spent years together, talking every night.They shared a special kind of bond that Ryou had failed to find in anybody he knew in-person.

Ryou shut his eyes, taking a deep breath.“I have some questions.” His voice cracked.The planchette didn’t move.Ryou opened his eyes.Why wasn’t it moving?Had he upset Bakura?He shifted his sitting position, chewing his lip.“I know you don’t like answering my questions.” Far from it, actually.Every time Ryou had attempted to get information from Bakura, the spirit had ceased contact.Ryou waited.The planchette moved after a few beats.It landed on the ‘YES’ spot.Ryou was in the clear.

“I want to know more about you,” Ryou began.“You know so much about me.But you never open up to me.Is it because you don’t trust me?”His voice wavered as he spoke.It took a few long, agonizing seconds before the planchette moved again.It spelled out the words ‘I TRUST,’ before stopping.

Ryou waited, and waited.He figured the stillness was a signal to ask away.Or at least, he hoped it was.Should he start with the most pressing question, or lead up to it?Before thinking twice, he blurted it out anyways.

“Why are you here?Like, why haven’t you passed on yet?”He paused.“I suppose that’s my first question.”After speaking, the planchette moved to spell out ‘QUESTIONS.’It took Ryou a few moments, before his face scrunched up.Of course.

“Are you really correcting me on what I said?” Ryou asked, rolling his eyes.“I know it was technically two questions.”The planchette spelled out ‘HAHA,’ before pausing briefly.Ryou was going to repeat his earlier question, but his fingers were pulled across the board again.

“You didn’t have any family?” he asked, confirming.“So we’re kind of… the same, then, aren't we?”It hadn’t been the kind of answer Ryou had wanted from the spirit, but he wasn’t very picky.This was new information.And anything new was important to him.The planchette slid on the board again, quicker now.Ryou had trouble keeping up with the words being spelled out, as it went on for longer than anticipated, but he managed to figure it out.

“Murder huh?” Ryou paused, taking a breath.He’d had his life stolen from him, apparently.At such a young age, too.Ryou was only eighteen, he couldn’t imagine being killed in two year’s time, like Bakura.“You didn’t really get much of a chance at life, did you?” Immediately after speaking, Ryou’s eyes widened as he realized what he’d said.“Er, sorry!That was insensitive.Sorry.”The planchette moved up and to the left, to rest on the board’s picture of a smiling sun.Hopefully, no harm done with his comment.

Ryou struggled with what to say next.There were a million questions on his mind.If he could ask them all, he would.But he didn’t have all night.Despite it being Halloween, at the most, he had four more hours.That is, if Bakura wanted to keep talking.He usually broke contact after an hour or so, regardless of conversation topic.Ryou’s fingers moved, catching him by surprise.Bakura was speaking through the board again, spelling out ‘HELP.’

Ryou cocked his head.“Help… with what?”Anything he could do for Bakura, he’d do it.He watched intently as Bakura spelled out ‘PENCIL,’ signaling for Ryou to physically write down the letters.It was something he did when the message was going to be unusually long.Ryou left one hand on the planchette, and grabbed a pencil and paper he kept aside the board.He nodded once he was ready, and wrote down everything Bakura said through the board.

Ryou stood up from his seat, reading and rereading what Bakura had told him.He needed to get his candles out.It wasn’t a very odd request, Bakura had told Ryou to light candles before.He went to his cabinet, which resided in the corner of the room.Opening the glass doors, Ryou tapped his chin.Most of his candles would suffice.There were rows and rows of them, varying in quality.Rifling through the hundred or so candles, he picked out two of his newer purchases: a blue one and a white one, both taller than those around them.

On his way back to the table, he fished the small matchbox out of his pocket.He placed the candles aside the ouija board and lit them.The flame licked the dry air, vivid red and orange.Smoke rose as the string burned.Grey swirled in front of him, smelling of lilac and vanilla.There was no limit to the amount of smoke he could produce, he’d disabled his smoke detectors ages ago.Before getting back to the board, he went to his bookcase.Excitement bubbled within him as he ran his finger along the red scrawled symbols of the black book.Finally, it’d be of use.He pulled it out from the shelf.It was heavy in his hands, weighing around five pounds.He brought it back with him.

“Okay, candles lit,” he said, plopping down and shoving his legs under the table.“And book acquired.”He moved back from the table, enough room to lay the book on his lap.Flipping through the pages, he found the page number Bakura had specified and quickly scanned the page’s contents.Ryou frowned.He didn’t speak Latin.

“I don’t know what it says.”This could potentially be something dangerous.Ryou wasn’t sure he wanted to continue.“What exactly is going to happen when I read it?”He waited for an answer, but didn’t get one for a while.When he did get one, Bakura said ‘BODY’ and nothing else.Ryou mulled over what that could mean.He hesitated as he realized.“Will this give you a body?”

Bakura moved the planchette to the ‘YES,’ and Ryou swallowed.His throat was dry.He didn’t really know what Bakura meant by getting a body.But he’d promised to help him.He trusted Bakura.

It wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t read the Latin.During these sorts of things, the words on the page just had to be read aloud.Ryou considered leaving the session, before sighing.He couldn’t abandon Bakura like that.What was the worst that could happen?

“If this will help you, I’ll do it.”Ryou nodded at the board and began reading the first paragraph.A few of the words were familiar to him, but the meaning was lost on him.He didn’t have to know Latin to know that his pronunciation was awful, but he pressed on, determined to do this for his friend.

Halfway through the second paragraph, the candles blew out.Ryou froze.It was as if the flames had just… disappeared.The smoke in the air was gone.The warm scent of lilac and vanilla lingered.There was a rattle in his candle cabinet.

Nothing like this had ever happened to Ryou before.He’d performed rituals and read words aloud, but those had mainly been the more generic ones that promised happiness and future wealth.Nothing that gave immediate results like this one was doing.

Ryou enjoyed the rush, despite his shivering.There was something about the ritual that made him feel energized.Frightened, but powerful.His eyes trailed back down to the page on his lap.As he continued reading the paragraphs aloud, dragging his finger along the words, the planchette moved.Without Ryou touching it.His eyes widened as he stared at it.There was a squeak as the wood moved across the board, to the moon picture in the top right, where it stopped.Bakura had never placed the planchette there before.

And then, something was different.The atmosphere was cold.It gave Ryou goosebumps and made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.And somehow, he knew the next lines of the passage.He no longer had to look at the page.As word after word left his mouth with excellent pronunciation, Ryou realized he wasn’t the one speaking.Sure, it was his mouth that was moving, his vocal chords producing sound, but it wasn’t him.

Ryou was not in control.The ritual didn’t seem like such a great idea anymore.

He clapped a hand over his mouth.No more.He wanted the ritual to stop.And for a moment, his speech slurred with the palm against his lips, before his left hand moved of its own will.It grabbed his right wrist, wrapping fingers around it tight enough to momentarily stop blood flow.Ryou trembled, tears welling up in his eyes.He let his left hand pull his other away from his mouth, and immediately the words started spilling out of again.

Powerless.He felt utterly powerless.His body continued shaking, whether it was out of fear or something else, he didn’t know.Probably both, if he was being honest.

There was a crash to the right of him, making him jump.He fought to crane his neck, wanting to see the damage.Purple ceramic shards covered the wood floor.The tears started to flow more as Ryou took in the sight.It was the vase his mother had given him the day before she’d passed away.

Then, everything seemed to stop.Ryou’s ears rang, a tinny noise that he’d never quite heard before.Something was unmistakably wrong.

He could see through his eyes.He could breathe through his nose, could smell the scent of burnt oak and wax in the air.There was a breeze in the room, and Ryou saw out of the corner of his eye that his bookshelves had fallen over.Behind it, the window was broken, glass thrown about that side of the room.

Ryou couldn’t get himself to move.The only way to describe how his head felt was ‘full.’He didn’t quite understand it.It felt like there was something else inside his head.

His body moved forward against without him doing it, and Ryou finally realized what had happened.That ritual wasn’t something small.He’d helped Bakura, all right.He’d helped him get a second chance at life.He’d given the spirit a body to inhabit.Ryou grimaced, a stark contrast to the tears still leaving wet trails down his cheeks.He tasted salt.

His body was no longer his own.Ryou’s hands were pulled forward, to the planchette.The wood piece moved down the board, finally resting on the written phrase, ‘GOOD-BYE.’

**Author's Note:**

> Never really posted yugioh fic before, despite that I've loved the franchise for almost 16 years now. Thought this would be a good first one, hopefully you enjoyed!
> 
> This may have been written for my english class, whoops. hahah :') <3


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